RUSA to provide expert juror for PROSE Awards judging panel

CHICAGO — The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) will lend its expertise to the PROSE Awards, the American Publishers Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence, with the appointment of RUSA member Dan Mack as an expert reference librarian and subject specialist to the judging panel.

Each year the PROSE Awards, presented by the Association of American Publishers, recognize the very best in professional and scholarly publishing by bringing attention to distinguished books, journals and electronic content in more than 40 categories. Mack, also the deputy director for Collection Management and Special Collections at the University of Maryland Libraries, will serve on the jury panel as the subject matter expert for language and linguistics. Judging will take place in January, and category winners will be announced on February 7, 2013 during the PROSE Awards luncheon.

“RUSA is proud to be a part of the PROSE Awards to recognize the best scholarly books, journals and electronic resources in all disciplines of the humanities, social sciences and sciences,” said RUSA President Mary Popp. “These awards serve all library users, and those of us who provide library services to users know that we can count on the award-winning works to offer high quality foundational and innovative information. In addition, the growth of the number of nominations demonstrates the value that publishers and researchers place on their content.”

The entry period for the 2012 awards recently closed with a record-breaking number of submissions: 518 entries from 70 publishers across the United States. For more information on the awards and the judging panel visit the PROSE Awards website.

The Reference and User Services Association, a division of the American Library Association, represents librarians and library staff in the fields of reference, specialized reference, collection development, readers’ advisory and resource sharing. RUSA is the foremost organization of reference and information professionals who make the connections between people and the information sources, services, and collection materials they need. Not a member, but interested in discounted registration rates on conference, preconferences and other events? Join, renew or add RUSA to your ALA membership at www.ala.org/membership. Learn more about the association at www.ala.org/rusa.